Sound Properties

(This is a short blog I wrote about sound properties on your PC. Maybe it will help somebody, maybe it won't, but I thought I would share it in case it will be helpful to some.)

Most might be familiar with the way Windows XP controls sound, but I thought I would put what I know in a blog so some could reference it if needed.

First, a note on sound cards. There are usually 3 connections to a sound card; Mike, Line and Out. Mike and line are "inputs", and Out is of course an output that generally goes to your speakers. Most will likely just put their microphone directly into the "Mike" input. Some who use effects devices like an echo may input their microphone into such a device and place the output of that device into the "Line" input to the sound card.

Your "Sound properties" are the combination of "Volume control" and "Recording control".

Also, realize that any software you are using to play/record the song you are doing is actually just manipulating the controls explained here in "Sound properties". This includes the player/recorder you are using on a site. That is just a software program. Some people are using software they have to record the song rather than the site`s recorder.

Now Volume.

You access the "Sound properties" by double clicking on the little speaker icon at the very lower right of your screen where the time of day is displayed.

This will pop-up a window called "Volume control". This window controls what comes out your speakers.

The far left slider is "Volume control" itself. This should usually be all the way up. It is the master control for all the sound coming out to your speakers.

The next one is "Wave". Wave is generally any sound file your computer is playing. So you can adjust this to control how loud the background music is when you sing to a karaoke song because the song is actually a file being played.

The "Line in" slider controls your microphone volume if you used the "Line" connection of your sound card (used probably if you used an effects device).

On the far right is the "Microphone" output. This controls how loud your singing is coming through your microphone and out the speakers. (used if you went directly into the "Mike" input of your sound card)

By adjusting the output of the music (Wave, slider) and your voice through the microphone (Line or Microphone, slider), you affect the balance of the music to your vocals. So, if your music is fine but your vocals are too low adjust your "Microphone (or Line in)" slider in to get it the way you want it.

This also determines how loud the song will be that you hear while you are recording.

One note on headphones. It is better to use headphones because if you use your speakers when you record your microphone will pick up the sound coming out of them, to some degree, as you record. Using headphones, the microphone only records your voice. Better.

Now recording.

To access the recording properties, on this "Volume control" window, click "Options" at the upper left. This brings a drop-down menu. Click on "properties" from that menu. This pops another small window called "Properties" believe it or not. From that window notice the "playback" button is selected. Now you select the "Recording" button instead. Click "Okay". Now your original "Volume control" window has been replaced by a "Recording control" window.

The "Stereo mix" slider controls how much level you are recording at. (Be sure this check-box is checked.) This is how well the recording function "hears" the settings you have made in "Volume control".

If your recordings are coming out distorted this slider is too high. It`s like your music is being screamed into the recorders ear. Turn the "Stereo mix" slider down little by little until your recordings don`t distort.

So the "Volume control" is how loud you are singing/playing your music and the balance of the music to your voice.

The "Recording control" is how well you are being heard by the recorder.

LAngeloMysterioso, thanks for a great tutorial. Many of us are novices at singing or recording online, so this will be very helpful. Once I learn a little more about this process, I'm going to try adding a song myself! (Even though I'm not a very good singer, I'm going to give it a go. After all, isn't that the main thing karaoke is good for: giving non-pros a chance to be heard by an audience?)

You're welcome and thanks for the kind words. I know some may know more about this than I but I didn't see anything posted about it so I sprang into action .

One note. I'm sure the staff here can clarify this if need be.

The recorder here is outstanding. Best I've seen.

It appears the slider on the recorder adjusts the overall input to the recorder. So your mixing (instrumental and vocal) are done on your PC. Many of these recorders have the mixing built in to the recorder and that just complicates matters.

This recorder does not change any of the Windows "sound properties" that I have detected.

Get your balance (music and vocals) set the way you want on your PC while trying the song and then just be sure the recorder slider doesn't peg (hit the top of the window) at the loud parts.

Awesome.....thank you so much for the advice. You spoke in clear English for us less mechanically inclinded and I "think" I understand it a little better.....now I am gonna go see how much my brain actually processed and see if I can fix some of my sound problems!

I am still having problems recording. WOuld you please help me.. Thanks.. My mic is through a usb port in my computer. That works well the problem is when I record I only hear myself. So, I have to place the mic between me and my speakers to get both vocals and music. I don't have an option on my sound card for "what u hear". I also wanna know if it is possible to also use headphones. If you can help it would be much appreciated. Thanks again!

Paperbagprincess, the WAVE setting in also labeled "What I Hear" or "WAVE out" or "Stereo Mix" on some computers. This particular setting is in the recording settings on your volume control. To record here on singsnap, you need to have that checked when you start to record. It sounds like your "input" is set for mic and that is why you are not getting the music as a backing track.

I am using windows xp. I do hear the music come out the speakers but not the vocals.. I have no software for my usb mic.... Should I be using a different mic? I was using a hand held one that came with my karaoke machine player but wa having the same problem

LAngeloMysterioso,It is easy to tell you know a lot about how to manipulate these settings. However, I had two friends both with Windows XP that could not find "Stereo Mix" as one of their recording choices. Upon having them list every one of them and several Google searches later, I finally found that "Wav Out" and "What I Hear" are indeed to alternate lables for that RECORDING property. However in my before adequate coffee post earlier, I did present that as very confusing and even made a major mistake of saying "Wave" goes by those names. It is "Stereo Mix" does. Mea Culpa!

Would it work better if I plug an ampo into my computer? Would that work? I can stillh only record by placing my mic to my speakers and leaning in.. Should I plug my stereo into my computer? Just trying to weigh in my options

It seems paperbagprincess' problem was the USB mic she was using. We also determined her "Stereo mix" was not checked.

Initially she had a normal mic. But she could not record the music because her "Stereo mix" was not checked. But she did hear her vocals through the speakers and the vocals recorded.

When she installed the USB mic it was the same but she couldn't hear the vocals through the speakers. And even with "Stereo mix" checked she could still not record the music. Somehow that USB mic overrode everything.

After going back to the normal mic and having "Stereo mix" checked, all worked properly.

What if the Mike only works when mike box is clicked? It won't let me click stereo mix and Mike at the same time. If I click one, I get the other, but never both sound and music. Mike volume is up but still one or the other, Sound Max Card new PC... I see stereo mix, Mic and CD player in window.

I am having the same problem as OhioTom. I can't select my Wave Out Mix (I don't have a Stereo Mix) and my Microphone at the same time so I eaither hear the music or my voice but, never both at once. This is so frustrating

I have exactly the same issue. My recording control is selected on Stereo mix, I have nothing muted in the Playback area and I am on Flash 9.0. I can hear the music and my voice through my speakers but get no recording level showing as the song plays and there is nothing there for playback. What am I missing. I go to two other sites and record just fine.

me too, i can go to ksuperstar and record and it doesn't do the same as on here , haven't tried bix yet, their webpages stick,lol but I guess I'm gonna have to go there , dang it , i luv this place man

Just found that I can record if I allow singsnap access, so there is something with the Flash. It sounds like hell or I would settle. This place has the best song selection, but if they can't get everyone up and running easily, that would seem to me to be a problem.

I am using Windows XP and there are 2 mic jacks, one in front - one in back. I have a Realtek card, stereo mix is selected, I am using Windows XP and there are 2 mic jacks, one in front - one in back. Does not allow me to select Mic at the same time so very little sound coming from the mic at max volume. The music sounds great, but very little vocal, no matter what apparently. I can get the volume of the music to change, but the vocal seems to remain almost non-existant in proportion to the backing music. Please advise.

Hi again, mine seems to be working much better. I don't know about everyone else, but in my system under Sounds and Audio devices in the Voice tab there is an option to test hardware. In my particular case, the problem was that the Mic record was set high but the Mic playback was set in the middle. When I changed that I was better able to control sound in the Volume and recording menus! I hope this helps someone else!

my problem was in the volume control where I pushed on options and clicked on to properties and then clicked on to recording and took out the wave out mix now it's working great , although I keep having to push settings on my player and making sure the recording volume in settings and the record volume on my player are even or else it's louder than anybody can stand

You must allow singsnap access or it's not going to record. It will play the music and you'll hear your singing but it's nor recording without access because the singsnap recorder does have an adjust for recording level.

From what I can tell the slider adjust on the singsnap recorder is a "fine tuning" of the recording input level. Once you have your "Stereo mix (or, what I hear, on some systems?)" set at a decent level in "Recording control", the slider on the singsnap recorder should allow you to tweak it for each song to allow for some being louder than others. Just get the level indicator window on the singsnap recorder to be just reaching the top at the loudest parts of a song.

The balance of volume between the song and your singing is adjusted in "Volume control".

I would think "record". Seems like that output is expected to be input to a recorder, which would likely have an impedence similar to a sound card.

The easy way to know is try all 3 and see which works best. Check the documentation that came with it. That should describe each output and it's use. For instance a "dry" output would be an output minus any "effects".

I had a lot of problems on how to get the music and mike at the same level. To correct this I use a Y connector going into the Mike imput and have one mike set at the speakers and the other set for vocals. This seems to correct the problems that I have had in the past. Oh yes I do have a vol. control that comes with my speakers. Let me know how it workes for you.Member locustthorn

Wow...I so appreciate this thread...but now that I have followed it, I have gone from being able to record 'okay' to a totally tweeked system. How in the heck do I get back to my default settings...this sucks. I did the above steps and now I have terrible feedback. I can actually hear my scrolling....and the master volume control is on low! My mic was originally on mute, so apparently I was using 'line in'. Well, I clicked the mute away on the mic and got terrible feedback. So...I clicked it back to mute...and now I can't hear my recordings...sigh. What a mess! How do I get things back to default...whereby my recordings used line in rather than mic? Sigh. Hours of time trying to correct this tonight and no results...it just gets worse.

If you are getting feedback that means that the mic (a mic is the same thing as a speaker by the way) is too close to the speaker. You can reduce this by either moving the mic away from the speaker or turning the speakers volume down (at the speaker, not from the computer).

This is why headphones are best. They eliminate feedback and also keep the music from being re-recorded through the mic. Better sound.

Hi i was following along pretty well there but my controls are not the same as yours i am using the xp media edition and i don't have the line in option and i don't have the microphone output option and the recorder controlls are different also. i am not sure what to do and am kinda going crazy lol when i tried to sing the music sounded fine but when i tried to play it back i could barely hear the music or my voice Thank you for the info though i suppose i will figure it out eventually.

If you read my tutorial, in the "properties" window there is a button for "playback" and "recording". As you click each of these there are checkboxes below which determine what "sliders" will be available in each your "Volume control" and "Recording control". Perhaps you can find the right things you need there. Maybe they just aren't checked.

You can also check out Peachy's post which has pictures that might make this clearer for you.

wow i had my sound when i recorded a song now its gone what happened to it and what do i do one minute its there and the next it s gone have no clue what to do i recored servaral songs and now i can't hear the sound just my voice .i did every thing that i could think of and now i'm stuck again ,any one out there can they please help me thank you ,,,,,,,,,,,Doreen

i am new at this. i have a logitec with built-in microphone. i record but when it plays back the music sounds like a robot with the hiccups and so does my voice. this is very frustrating. this sounds like a lot of fun but i can't seem to record. help

It is important to read the tutorial CAREFULLY. Take one sentence at a time and don't go on to the next until you are sure you understand. The terms are a bit hard to understand as they are talkong about several different windows with different adjustments on each.

lady----When misic playback is faint, it usually means you have to turn your "Wave" slider up in "Volume control".

wood----As far as the logitech with the built in mic, where is it built in? The speakers? Does the music and singing sound fine while you record?

doreen----- did you go through the tutorial carefully again? Can you not hear the music when you record or after. Check to be sure "Wave" is not checked to "mute" in "Volume control".

To anyone who can help me: I seem to be able to record and playback but the playback is jumpy...as if it was trying to get through buffering...but that isn't the problem I'm sure. I followed Flash instructions on setting the local storage for the site on "unlimited" because Flash indicated if you didn't, it could cause the halting playback. But even though I set it for "unlimited" storage for singsnap, it still plays back in a halting manner. Can anyone advise me how to get a smooth playback? On ksolo, I don't have this problem at all. Help!! I like singsnap and want to be able to use it!! Thanks.

This is Cherylb...I found my problem...for anyone else who is having playback or recording or listening that sounds halting or breaks up...try this...it WORKED!!! Right click on the Singsnap player...a menu will appear...go down to "Quality"....mine had a check mark by "Medium"....CHANGE THIS....to "Low." This completely solved my problem. The only problem is...you have to do this every time you want to record or playback...or listen to others...if you are getting the breaking up problem...because...for some reason, even though you change it, it defaults to "Medium" all over again. If anyone can tell me how to adjust the default, I would be most appreciative. But even with this little problem, I am HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY because now I can use this site with NO problems! Glory Be!!!

HI I AM KARAOKESUPERSTAR57 I HAVE THE SAME TROUBLE WHEN I RECORD A SONG LIKE I DID TONIGHT WITH UNCHAINED MELODY I RECORDED IT WITH MUSIC BUT WHEN I REVIEWED IT THERE WAS NO MUSIC JUST MY VOICE AND IT SOUNDED TERRIBLE WHAT DO I DO CAN SOMEONE WHO KNOWS ABOUT COM[UTER TECHNOWLOGY CAN THEY HELP ME PLEASE.